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Visuals and Social Media
Lots of useful information about creating and using visuals as promotional tools to engage your audience and sell. Resources * Social Media Examiner: optimizing images for multiple social networks (Nov 20, 2014) / How to Optimize Social Media Images (Apr 2, 2015) ** Highly recommended! Image creation and sizing for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn * Infographics guide by Social Media Examiner * Facebook image dimensions: "Sizes and Dimensions" page! ** Page header, Dec 2016: 851x315 px * Comprehensive guide to Facebook photo sizes ** by Miranda Miller, Search Engine Watch, Dec 31, 2013 * Youtube's channel art help page General Notes * For SEO: ensure file names are descriptive ** Keywords! ** Use hyphens, underscores in file names, not spaces * SME recommends: always use lossless compression! (Apr 2, 2015) * Add alt tags 'and other metadata ** Alt tags: no more than 125 chars ** WordPress: title (60 chars), description (155), caption, alt tag (125) * Human brain apparently processes pictures 60.000 times faster than words (according to SME) * User-generated: invite users to share content! Anything that shows how they use my product ** Give them an easy option to submit photos * Use 'Infographics and Slideshare to publish and disseminate your content! * Make collages if I have more than 1 good image (Service: Pic Collage) Technical Info Always Up-To-Date Image Size Guide - Sprout Social General * Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn: optimal choice: horizontalimages! ** Ideal resolution: 1280x720 (16:9) Facebook * Image dimensions: ** Profile portrait image: 160x160 px (Aug 34, 2014) ** Profile and page cover image: 851x315 px (Aug 4, 2014) ** Group cover image: 785x250 px (as of July 4, 2014) ** Event cover image: 785x295 px (measured by me, Aug 4, 2014) ** Timeline linked article preview: 1200x630 px (reference: Facebook's guidelines) *** Use this for your blog posts' featured images! * For FB ads: only 20% of image can be text! (5x5 grid - use grid tool!) Twitter * Twitter header image (since May 2014 redesign): 1500x500 ratio (also works with larger actual resolutions) * Image size/dimensions cheat sheet (Aug 2014) Youtube * Aug 4, 2014: refer to Youtube's template! ** Channel art: 2560x1440 px ** Text and Logo: 1546x423 px in middle center of image ** Header as visible on PC browser: 2440x423 px across middle of image Pinterest * Tall images perform best * Optimal size: 735x1102 * This will grab most screen real estate! * Also good for Google+ Instagram * Images have to be square! * At least 900x900 pixels * Recommended: larger * Also good for Google+, Facebook General * Make your image larger than the dimensions (e.g. 200x200 instead of 160x160 for FB profile pic), then let the website scale it down * Best image resolution: 72 dpi for web use / 300 dpi for print Creating Visual Content * GOLDMINE article! Types: ** Images ** Video ** Infographics (graphs, charts) ** Presentations (SlideShare) * 10 visual design tools: includes "Pictaculous" for finding best colours for img overlay text * Draw it yourself, by hand! Visual Storytelling * Visual Storytelling on Social Media: pictures are really important! Use: ** Clever photo collections, (current world issues combined with my business) ** Create stand-alone visual campaigns: "Market" - "Meerkat" example: their mascot has his own FB page and his ongoing story keeps attracting customers *** Tell any story: e.g. behind my logo, location, anything unique! ** Develop community around a charity: share my company's passion ** Incorporate fan-generated content. Find user images to share by asking them to use a specific hashtag ** Share your history * More on this: ** Lifestyle angle: share hi-quality pictures with relation to people's lives ("how does this fit into your lifestyle?") *** Show my product in use in real life ** Show the human side of my product (share informal moments!), the real people and work behind it ** Celebrate my audience's passions: '''highlight what they love, show what inspires me ** '''Videos: '''create stories around my product features *** "Meet the Staff" or "Behind the Scenes" videos *** Testimonial videos *** How-to videos *** Parodies of popular material ** Set up channels for '''niche audiences: don't use a one-size-fits-all approach. Have fun with specific content, drive them back to your site ** Create memes ** Featured customers (e.g. most loyal) ** "Now trending" ** Comics